1. Technical Field
The invention relates to systems for processing calls to a call center. In particular, the invention relates to systems for processing and/or documenting incoming calls to the call center.
2. Related Art
Call centers are typically utilized to support a product or service for a business. The support may be in answering a customer's question or in receiving information from the customer. For example, call centers may be staffed by one or more agents to answer questions relating to the business' product or service, such as setup or operation of the product. As another example, call centers may receive information from customers or potential customers, such as warranty information, complaints, credit-card activation, or the like.
The call center may receive a request from the customer, either in the form of an incoming telephone call, an e-mail, or some other electronic message. The agents who staff the call center may respond to the request of the customer, such as by answering the telephone call, responding to the e-mail, or the like. Thus, the call center may include interacting with the customer via telephone, and may also include interacting with the customer via e-mail, or other electronic means.
In processing the request of the customer, the call center may have two goals: (1) responding to the request of the customer (such as answering the customer's questions and/or receiving information from the customer); and (2) documenting the call (such as documenting the question of the customer, the recommended solution provided the customer, etc.). The time it takes to process a call (such as respond to the customer's request and/or document the call) is called the handle time.
One example of a business that may request call center services is an Internet Service Provider (ISP) wherein Narrow band (Dial up) and/or broad band (Digital Subscriber Line) customers of the ISP may call the call center to troubleshoot connectivity or related issues faced by them and the call center may handle these calls. Typically, agents in the call center attempt to resolve the customer's issue with the help of backend knowledge bases that they have access to. Moreover, the agents may be required to document details of the customer contact, such as on a backend application of the client where customer information is stored. A call may last between 10-40 minutes. The average handle time (across all calls) may be approximately 20 minutes. This average handle time is merely an example, and may be longer or shorter.
It is not uncommon to have many agents, such as 1000 agents, handle a large number of calls every month, such as 300,000 calls every month. One may wish to reduce the handle time of calls, thereby reducing the average handle time. There are a variety of activities which may result in the length of handling of a call. One activity may be the time it takes for the agent to diagnose the problem and determine the necessary steps that need to be taken to resolve the problem. Another activity that may contribute to the length of time to handle a call is the agent's documenting details of the customer contact on the backend. While there is a knowledge base to support diagnosing and determining the problem, even toggling between windows is time intensive leading to longer handling of the call. Therefore, there is a need to reduce the length of handling a call in a call center.